Thursday, January 24, 2013

Compared to December, January feels like it is moving a glacial pace to me.

Perhaps also because I am working on the year end books and my creative brain would rather do just about anything else. So in between number crunching I've been working on my Color Your Zentangle Workshops, experimenting with different mediums to use with Zentangles, such as inktense, india inks, water soluble crayons and the like. I could look it up on line to find out someone else's results, but I must see for myself what happens when one mixes the different ingredients together on a tile. Sort of like life really, you don't actually "know" something until you have experienced it first hand.

I started tangling on these a couple of these tiles last night and will take the rest to with me to do this weekend.

I may have mentioned this before, but one of my intentions that I set for myself a while back was to have my art help people. I didn't know at the time how I was going to accomplish that, but I knew that selling it alone, was not fulfilling enough for me, that I wanted to go deeper than that to touch others. This came home for me a few weeks ago when I was in the waiting room at a spot where I also teach. One of my students is a family therapist and I over heard her talking to a Mom and young son. At one point she said to the little boy. "Remember that drawing exercise I showed you...you can use when you feel you need to calm down."

I felt so grateful when I heard this. Yes, I thought, my intention has come full circle. What a gift it was to hear it!

I'd like to share this gift of peace with you. I have some upcoming classes. An easy Color Your Zentangle Class at Synergy in the Valley from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. We'll be doing some fun experimenting.

Monday, January 7, 2013

I hope you had a wonderful Holiday and a Joyous New Year! I know I did. Since then, I have been keeping busy (was hard to give up the afternoon reading and naps, though) in order to bring on some more Zentangle classes for Spokane in January and February. Send me a message via this blog and I'll send you the dates and details!

I find that I am more introspective in winter and read this after a particularly unbalanced time prior to Christmas. It was preprinted in a journal which I use and it is so appropriate for me as I know that I can be impatient with myself.

"Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles and the water is clear?" - Lao- Tzu. I think I need to put this just about every where I can see it.

Soon after reading this I realized that on a particular issue that I struggled with for a long while, that the mud had indeed settled and the water had cleared. Some times we think pushing is the answer, when waiting will suffice. Things are usually made clear over time.

I also did some fun Zentangles:

This one is called "Bridges" and uses ink and colored pencils. It felt like a bit of a metaphor for my life at the time, where I was walking on intersecting bridges over many whirling vortexes. Which way? Do I step off here and get involved or stay on the same path?

Things felt more back to normal around New Year's and I created an affirmation Zentangle using the same themes:

I even tried my hand at jewelry, having bought the supplies before Christmas for gifts which I didn't get around to making, but now I'll be ahead of the game!

We had a lot of snow today (for here) about 6 inches had fallen and it is beautiful. Our car is good in snow, but our hill is a little dodgy before the plow comes along, so I got to play inside today. I continued to work on my Goddess painting which I have been working on for a while. Here's a grey version which gives me a clearer picture of where I need to go next.

And now the color version, still a way to go:

I feel that as long as I have my art, which has taught me patience, among other things, that I can wait for the mud to settle and water to clear.